ifferent version of the Articles of Confederation than Dickinson had originally intended upon. The Articles that were finally agreed upon overly protected the independence of states and did not supply Congress with the necessary power to run a unified country. In its existence under the Articles of Confederation, the United States were anything but united. Each state basically acted as an independent country with its own government and own set of rules. The Articles were faulty and unclearly thought out in many ways, which left the United States unorganized and on the verge of chaos for several years to come.The most blatant and detrimental of the Articles flaws was that they did not grant the Congress the ability to levy taxes. The only way for Congress to raise money was to ask the individual states for donations, and this left Congress extremely low on funds. During the years of the Revolutionary War the United States Congress incurred a very large war debt. The Congress owed $12 million to foreign countries, $27 million to the American people plus $12.5 million in interest. The individual states owed $21 million. The Congress was over $50 million in debt. Without the ability to levy taxes, the Congress was left with virtually no possible way of repaying their huge war debts. The American people began to get angry and uneasy with the unpaid debts. Even more dangerous was the war debt that the United States had accumulated with France. Without being able to raise tax money, the United States had no way of raising and financing an army. With the large debt to France getting larger and going unpaid, many Americans feared hostilities with France, with the United States having no way to raise an army to defend itself. Another problem that was created with Congress inability to tax was that there were no government funds to pay civil servants. A second weakness of the Articles of Confederation was that the Articles stated the Congress ...
